NATIONAL IDENTITY AND POPULISM: STATE ASPECT

Abstract

This article analyzes the problem of national identity and populism in the context of modern public administration. The study of populism is important due to the social procurement from interested subjects of the political environment who use populism for the realization of their programmes and power contest. At the same time, the populist category of «people» – the keepers of all merits, top priorities, the standard of good and evil – that is quite popular today in Ukraine originates from the Ukrainian national democratic movement of the 19th cent. characterized by distinctive populism elements. New Ukrainian national movement took it over as the part of the intellectual legacy from its historical predecessors, all the more so, because it was, as mentioned before, necessary in the period of the final attack on communism. The problem of national identity is quite popular in Ukrainian scientific society. This is due to the fact that on the one hand, the definition of Ukrainian identity can be a theoretic way to create a nation state, another ideological cliche that some politicians use to invent new arguments in their power games. The populism strategy is a constant reflection on particular things going on in society. It is some sort of system protection and unification of certain symbols useful for the populists. Moreover, it is a characteristic feature of working on human consciousness in the process and historical self-development in the context of ideological norms. There is always a «combination instinct» in populism. From a psychological point of view, it is the instinct responsible for the ability of people to analyze their relations and bonds with the world and give certain associations, that is to connect one things with others. Ukrainian society has to find effective ways of political development once again.